272 THE BARN OWL, 



" Once I was a monarch's daughter, 



And sat on a lady's knee ; 

 But am now a nightly rover, 

 Banish'd to the ivy tree, 



" Crying, hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo, 



Hoo, hoo, hoo, my feet are cold 1 

 Pity me, for here you see me, 

 Persecuted, poor and old." 



I beg the reader's pardon for this exordium. I have introduced 

 it, in order to show how little chance there has been, from days long 

 passed and gone to the present time, of studying the haunts and 

 economy of the owl, because its unmerited bad name has created it 

 a host of foes, and doomed it to destruction from all quarters. Some 

 few certainly, from time to time, have been kept in cages and in 

 aviaries. But nature rarely thrives in captivity, and very seldom 

 appears in her true character when she is encumbered with chains, 

 or is to be looked at by the passing crowd through bars of iron. 

 However, the scene is now going to change ; and I trust that the 

 reader will contemplate the owl with more friendly feelings, and 

 quite under different circumstances. Here, no rude schoolboy ever 

 approaches its retreat ; and those who once dreaded its diabolical 

 doings are now fully satisfied that it no longer meddles with their 

 destinies, or has anything to do with the repose of their departed 

 friends. Indeed, human wretches, in the shape of body-snatchers, 

 seem here in England to have usurped the office of the owl in our 

 churchyards " et vendunt tumuli s corpora rapid sm's." 



Up to the year 1813, the barn owl had a sad time of it at Walton 

 Hall. Its supposed mournful notes alarmed the aged housekeeper. 

 She knew full well what sorrow it had brought into other houses when 

 she was a young woman ; and there was enough of mischief in the 

 midnight wintry blast, without having it increased by the dismal 

 screams of something which people knew very little about, and which 

 everybody said was far too busy in the churchyard at night-time. 

 Nay, it was a well-known fact, that if any person were sick in the 

 neighbourhood, it would be for ever looking in at the window, and 

 holding a conversation outside with somebody, they did not know 

 whom. The gamekeeper agreed with her in everything she 



